The descriptor “spoof” carries certain implications and obligations with it, chief among them “wit.”

French filmmakers Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani have a way with a witty title (“Let the Corpse Tan”). And their early ’60s spy spoof “Reflection in a Dead Diamond” may be spot on in design, cars and villain names (Serpentik!) mimicking the era and its movies.

Its pretentions reach for equal parts “Danger: Diabolik” and “Trans-Europ-Express,” with the merest soupcon of Godard’s “Alphaville.”

But even though the spoof becomes broader as the spy in question becomes the subject of pulp fiction novels and even a movie within a movie, something — anything — funny gets lost in translation.

“Dead Diamond” is a thriller about an aged agent (Fabio Testi) triggered into a flashback about an infamous “case” and worries about the unfinished business and villainess who survived it.

What triggers this “diamond” laced mystery? The sight of a topless sunbather’s diamond-tipped nipple piercing on the beach.

Back in the day, John D. (Yannick Renier) was a spy among spies, cutting a dashing figure through the ’60s, zipping from assignment to assignment in his E-Type Jaguar. He took on the task of protecting a mogul named Strand (Koen De Bouw), an oil tycoon who insists he needs no protection.

With leather body-suited lady ninjas on the loose doing the bidding of Serpentik, Strand could not be more wrong.

Brawls begin as seductions and diamonds rend and tear flesh as John D. looks for clues, his quarry and the film’s plot.

Extreme close-ups and montages decorate the screen as the film skips in time back and forth from John D.’s long ago “case,” and the older John D. weighing whether this Serpentik still constitutes dangers and seeing himself rendered in paperback and big screen exploits.

The menace hiding behind the endless possibilities of the James Bond films of the era is what the movie is about, the sort of “man is going to the moon” optimism that has Strand declare that nuclear energy and spaceflight mean “‘the sky is the limit’ is now obsolete'” (in French with English subtitles).

But human “progress” has its sharp edge. A soprano’s (Céline Camara) minidress of mirrored discs is a weapon in all the slashing and straight-razor slicing and misplaced body parts recovered on the beach.

Maria de Medeiros of “Pulp Fiction” turns up as our villainess in winter, and a cliffside car chase tests an ancient Alfa Romeo and that E-Type and their drivers in what passes for a finale.

The acting is rendered reductivist in the editing, and the choppiness of the narrative leaves a lot open to interpretation as to what these self-conscious filmmakers were on about.

Buying into the trippiness of it all is kind of a must. But it would be a lot easier with a lighter touch, and perhaps a bit of workshopping the impressionistic script into something more than the merest “impressions.”

Rating: unrated, graphic violence, nudity

Cast: Yannick Renier, Maria de Medeiros, Céline Camara, Fabio Testi, Manon Beuchot and Koen De Bouw

Credits: Scripted and directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. A Shudder release.

Running time: 1:26